


Evolution

by mithrel



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Blanket Permission, M/M, Partners to Lovers, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-11
Updated: 2011-10-11
Packaged: 2017-10-24 12:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wasn't Rickey. He knew that. But sometimes he forgot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Evolution

He wasn’t Rickey. He knew that—when he was the one who’d come back, Jake hated him more than he’d ever hated anyone. He didn’t want his help to destroy the ear-pods, but he wasn’t given a choice.

As if he’d ever forget who he was, he showed it almost immediately. Rickey would have killed the guards without hesitation, but Mickey didn’t. He supposed he was right, if they killed them they’d be no better than the Cybermen, but it was just one more difference.

Then he nearly got them killed going back for his friends. Rickey wouldn’t have done that. There weren’t that many of them in the Preachers, but that was all the more reason for all of them to escape that could, and not take stupid risks. If one of them was caught, the rest left them. They all knew that. If Jake had been caught, Rickey would have left him; it would tear him up, but he’d do it, because it was necessary. Jake would do the same thing.

He knew he wasn’t Rickey, but he still forgot. When they disabled the transmitter controls, he’d grabbed onto him, just like he would have if it was Rickey. He’d done it again when they’d transmitted the code for the emotional inhibitor. Mickey was just as excited as he was, but if he knew what Jake was thinking…

He was straight, that was obvious from his conversation with Rose before she left…and how _that_ happened, he still had no clue. Things didn’t just disappear.

When the Doctor and Rose had gone, he and Mickey climbed into the van. Mickey looked at him. “I know it’s not easy, with my face looking exactly like Rickey. But I’m a different man, I’m not replacing him.”

Jake shook his head slightly, then replied, his voice soft. “You never could. I’ll never have another boyfriend like him.”

Mickey’s reaction was pretty much what he’d expected. He got a deer-in-the-headlights look and said, “OK, definitely not replacing him.”

Jake smiled slightly at that, as Mickey continued. “But we can remember him, by fighting in his name.”

Jake nodded. He would make sure every fucking Cyberman on the planet was destroyed. He wasn’t sure why Mickey was still here, but he’d helped him at the factory, and he’d be a help against the Cybermen.

###

In Paris they’d found the Cyber-factory fairly quickly, then spent a week tunnelling under the fence. They’d almost been caught twice, but they’d brought some of Mrs. Muir’s electromagnetic bombs that took out the Cyberman, and a Taser took out the human guard. They’d got up to the control area before they’d run into trouble. There were a dozen Cybermen and two humans. They’d used all their bombs, and there were two Cybermen still active. Jake managed to duck past them and transmit the code. They collapsed, just as they were about to grab Mickey. The human guards grabbed them, but they fought free and ran out, past Cybermen writhing and twitching on the floor, through the gates and back to the van.

As Jake gunned the engine, he let out a whoop. “We did it!”

“Yeah,” Mickey replied, grinning back. “What now?”

“Got a message from Pete a few days ago. There’s another factory in New Germany. Munich.”

“So that’s our next stop, then.”

“Yeah. Pete’s recruited a few more people. Don’t know who they are; safer that way if we’re caught.” Mickey nodded. “But there’s half a dozen teams now. They’ve already taken out the facilities in South America.”

“Good that we’re not on our own anymore. Not much chance with just the two of us.”

Jake nodded. “So, Munich?”

Mickey grinned at him. “Munich.”

###

It went on like that. After Paris and Munich they took out the factories in Rome, Barcelona, and Athens.

Jake was getting twitchy. He knew now that Mickey wasn’t the same person as Rickey; he’d proven that. But he was someone he’d be glad to have at his back in a fight, and his skill with computers had hauled their arses out of the fire on more than one occasion.

Mickey was getting more confident, less clumsy; they made a good team. And Jake was starting to think things about him that would only cause trouble if he knew.

He wasn’t distracted during the missions yet, but afterwards, when they parked the van at a campground and crashed, or checked into a seedy motel miles from where they’d just been, Jake lay awake for a long time, listening to Mickey breathing next to him.

It didn’t help that lately he could have sworn Mickey was _looking_ at him, with a speculative expression on his face, as if trying to figure him out. He was suspicious, even though Jake had done everything possible to avoid an awkward scene. They had work to do, he couldn’t afford to freak Mickey out. After his initial reaction, he had seemed to forget about the fact that Jake and Rickey had been together—or maybe it weirded him out so much he was ignoring it. Jake didn’t want to call attention to it again, and risk Mickey being preoccupied during a mission, or worse, leaving.

It had been nearly a year. The other teams had destroyed the factories on the other continents: Tel Aviv, New York, Sao Paolo, Algiers...all of them. There was only Europe left now, and of all the factories, only Bergen remained. When they took that out, they’d be finished.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Yes, the Cybermen would all have been destroyed, and Rickey would be avenged, but he didn’t know what he was going to do next. He supposed Mickey’d go back to London, to his (Rickey’s) grandmother, and so would he, but after travelling the world and helping to save it, he didn’t think he’d be able to deal with staying in one city for the rest of his life. Not to mention there was no guarantee Mickey would want to have anything to do with him after they finished this.

“It’s been nice, you know.”

Jake looked over at Mickey. “What has?”

“This,” Mickey gestured to the hotel kitchen. “Travelling around, saving the world.”

“Yeah,” Jake said softly. “Yeah, it has.”

“Thanks,” Mickey said suddenly, apropos of nothing.

“For what?”

“You never treated me like I’m useless.”

“You’re _not_ useless!” he retorted, more fiercely than he’d intended.

“Maybe not, but the Doctor–”

“Oh, _him,_ ” Jake cut him off. “Reckon anyone’d seem useless next to him,” he said dismissively.

“You saved my life. More than once. That time in Lisbon…”

Jake waved him away. “Who was the one who got that Cyberman sneaking up behind me in Ankara? We’re partners, no need to thank me for that.”

“Are we?”

“Are we what?” he asked, confused by the non sequitur.

“Partners.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jake said, unaccountably uncomfortable. “We’ve been working together for nearly a year, after all.”

Mickey nodded. “We make a good team.”

“Yeah.”

“What are you going to do, after this is all over?”

Jake shrugged. “Go back to London I suppose. See if I can get another job as a mechanic. What about you?”

“Well, my Gran back home…in the other universe I mean…she died.”

“I’m sorry.”

Mickey shrugged. “She’s alive here, though. I guess I’ll stay with her for awhile, look for a job, get a flat.”

Jake nodded. There was a pregnant pause. “Do you really want to, though?”

“Want to what?”

“Just go back to an ordinary life, after this. _Can_ you?”

“What choice do I have?”

“Pete knows the director of Torchwood. You could get a job there.”

“Torchwood. Fighting aliens, that sort of thing?”

“Yeah. With your computer skills, they could use you.”

“What about you?”

He thought about it. “Suppose I could. But then you’d be working with me all the time.”

“And just what the hell do you think this is?”

“I mean, I figured when we got back to London, you’d leave!”

There. He’d said it. Mickey didn’t say anything for a moment, then he asked, “Why would you think that?”

“Why’d you even stay here? What’s worth staying here for?”

“Plenty. Rose didn’t want me, the Doctor ignored me. I was useless baggage. Nothing left for me there. Here, I can help people, really make a difference. Plus, my Gran’s still alive. And…” he stopped for a moment, then squared his shoulders and continued. “There’s you.”

“What about me?” he asked, suspiciously.

“We make a good team, like I said. I told you a year ago that I wouldn’t replace Rickey, and I haven’t tried–”

“I know.”

Mickey waved a hand at him, and he shut up. “What I’m trying to say is…I know you’ll never have another boyfriend like him. But are you up for another boyfriend?”

Jake gaped at him, trying to make that sentence mean something other than the fact that Mickey had just offered.

As the silence stretched, Mickey shifted uncomfortably. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

“Wait a minute. When you say ‘another boyfriend’ you mean _you?_ ”

“Like I said, it’s stupid.”

“But you’re _straight!_ ” he burst out. “You and Rose…”

“Yeah, me and Rose, but that was a long time ago. Now it’s ‘Rose and the Doctor.’ I figure it’s time I moved on.”

“You’re serious. You’re really serious.”

“Would I have brought it up if I wasn’t?”

“Mickey…” he stopped, not sure what to say. “I wouldn’t have asked you, but I have been thinking about it.”

“I noticed. Took me awhile to figure out what was going on in my head. Never been attracted to a guy before, but I guess it’s possible.”

“So we take out Bergen, then go get a job at Torchwood,” he asked after a moment, grinning.

“Sure.”

“And you can move out of your Gran’s whenever; I still have a flat.” He waited, still unsure of Mickey’s reaction to the offer and what it implied.

“Sure,” Mickey said, and Jake beamed at him.

“Now let’s go kick some metal arse!”


End file.
